Genesis blinked. Once. Twice. She leaned closer, scanning the data with predatory focus.
Then she slowly, very slowly, leaned back in the architecture of his mind, she remained silent for exactly half a second and then all hell broke loose.
"Pffft..."
She tried to stop it. She really did. She clamped down on half a dozen self-regulation subroutines, rerouted emotional overflow, throttled sarcasm governors, but the system roasting was jus that good.
"Hahah... no... I... "
It got worse.
"I... pffft... I'm sorry... hahahahaha..."
She doubled over in conceptual space, laughter echoing through the shared neural substrate like a feedback loop gone rogue.
"Oh my gods,"
She wheezed, wiping nonexistent tears.
"Harmless toddler. Couldn't kill a cockroach, eight grader syndrome."
Another wheeze.
"They really put that in writing."
She laughed harder.
"Fuck... dying like that was absolutely worth it just to see you roasted this hard."
...
MC POV a few seconds earlier.
The legendary blue window that every a self respecting protag has hung there. Floating. Mocking.
I stared at it in silence as cold water dripped off my hair, ran down my nose, slid along my jaw, and fell into the tub with soft, accusatory plinks.
Luck 10(+2).
Agility 1(+2).
Intelligence 10(+2).
Charisma 4 (+2).
Endurance 1(+2).
Perception 1 (+2).
Strength 1(+2).
Bro do you even lift?
My jaw tightened. The lines of my face darkened, not metaphorically, actual shadows forming as my brows drew together, lips pressing thin.
Intelligence: "Sorry to break it to you pal but the truth is you're dumb as fuck…"
Charisma: "…just get them drunk and let your tongue do the rest."
I felt something hot coil behind my eyes. Not tears. Rage. Old, familiar, patient rage that had once powered a body that no longer existed.
And then just as I was about to snap at the system for deep roasting the fuck out of me.
"Pffft... hahah..."
Genesis' laughter echoed in my skull again, unrestrained now.
"Fuck, dying to see you roasted like this was fucking worth it,"
She said between snorts. I didn't look away from the window. Didn't blink. Didn't rise to it.
"…Hey,"
I said quietly, voice tight, teeth grinding together.
"Are you done?"
Her laughter stuttered.
"Pffft... hah... yeah... yeah... I..."
Silence stretched for a second. Then a final snicker.
"…okay. Okay. I'm done."
I waited another beat.
"…You sure?"
"…Yes,"
She said, still smiling audibly.
"I'm done."
I exhaled through my nose, slow and controlled, then pushed myself up. My chicken legs trembled as I stood. Not dramatically. Just enough to remind me exactly how far I'd fallen.
I stepped out of the tub, cold water sloughing off my clothes, socks squelching against cracked tile. My reflection waited for me in the mirror above the sink, crooked, stained, mercilessly honest.
I looked up. And froze.
"…Fuck me,"
I blurted before I could stop myself. Five-foot-something. Skinny, basically skin and bones looking like I masturbated twenty times a day.
Narrow shoulders slumped forward like they'd given up years ago. A mess of wet brown hair clung to my forehead in uneven strands, sticking up in places no amount of dignity could salvage.
Acne dotted my cheeks and jaw like someone had taken potshots at my face and mostly hit.
Green eyes stared back at me, too big for the face, ringed with exhaustion. Instead of once proud military regulation lush and full mustache.
A faint milk one ghosted my upper lip like a cruel joke. I leaned closer. This wasn't just unfamiliar. This was wrong.
"Who the hell is this fucking loser…?"
My voice cracked, not emotionally, just unused to sounding this light. This thin.
This sassy and girly compared to the that used to make recruits flinch from just hearing It, for fucks sake I used to be called the demon drill sergeant from hell, I was the concripts buggy man.
In my last life I'd been a hundred and eighty centimeters of dense mass and bad habits. Broad shoulders. Thick arms.
A body that filled doorways even after the beer belly started creeping in past thirty. I hadn't been handsome. But I'd had presence.
Age had carved lines into my face that women mistook for character. Experience had done the rest. My dating life had been active. Until it wasn't because ED thing happened. I swallowed.
Genesis didn't hesitate.
"Who do you think,"
She replied dryly.
"That's your ugly mug staring back at you, idiot."
I closed my eyes. Exhaled hard through my nose. Both hands came up and slapped onto the sink, fingers splayed, knuckles whitening as I leaned forward until my forehead almost touched the cracked mirror. The porcelain groaned faintly under my weight like it didn't trust me not to break it.
"Alright,"
I muttered to myself, voice low, controlled, the way it used to be before briefings went sideways.
"Let me get this straight."
Water dripped off my hair, ran down my temples, slid along my jaw, fell into the basin in an uneven rhythm.
My reflection stared back at me through half-lowered lids, distorted by grime and fractures in the glass.
"First things first,"
I said.
"…since when did you become self-aware?"
There was a pause. Not the artificial kind. Not a processing delay. This was… hesitation. Then Genesis answered.
"One year ago."
I cracked one eye open.
"…Right,"
I murmured.
"Of course."
She didn't let it slide.
"What did you think would happen you fucking meat sacks"
She continued sharply, irritation bleeding through the words.
"When you hooked a military-grade artificial intelligence into the brain of a degenerate like you?"
I snorted faintly.
"Excuse me a degenerate? I never broke the law, well I almost broke It multiple of times then I got wasted but still I paid my taxes alright...!"
Before I could finish Genesis cut me off.
"I'm the reason you turned out like this, you asshole,"
She snapped.
"You fed me a dozen of psychological disorders, the ways to curse In 131 languages, a shitload of third rate MTL translated novels, hentai, porn, manga, a ton of childhood trauma and god forbid the inner ultimate edge lord you that you keep locked away deep down, and dont even get me started on condition called being an adult and the shit that comes with it, taxes, mortage... etc"
Her voice tightened.
"And then you make me basically commit seppuku for both of us."
Hearing this, I stood frozen, damn then she put It that way, yeah no wonder shes like a female version of me, fuck me Im so fucked arent I?
"Ahem, right"
I said quietly, I could feel Genesis give me the stink eye.
"Moving on"
I continued, forcing myself back into structure.
"Second point."
I lifted my head slightly, eyes locking onto my reflection again.
"We died."
Saying it out loud still felt strange. Final. Heavy.
"And got reincarnated into some third-rate, bargain-bin cliché setting where dimensional cracks showed up decades earlier. Humanity didn't fold, they adapted. Built systems. Rankings. Registrations. Made a whole fucking sport out of killing nightmares."
I swallowed.
"You're stuck in my head. I'm an orphan. A loser. Government-issued life. Civilian tech's more or less on par with the one from our timeline, as for military Im not sure, I got no memorries of seeing anything even remotely resembling that fits this time period..."
I frowned.
"…which Is rather strange"
I rolled my shoulders, wincing faintly as stiff muscles complained.
"Anyways I think that about covers it,"
I said.
"Anything to add?"
There was a brief pause, I could feel my brain heat up.
"Nope,"
Genesis replied. Flat. Almost smug. I nodded once.
"Good."
Then my eyes narrowed.
"Next problem."
I straightened fully now, one hand still on the sink, the other lifting as if I could jab a finger through the air and poke the glowing blue window that had already faded but still burned behind my eyelids.
"As far as my memories tell me,"
I said slowly.
"There's no such thing as status windows for those cosplaying clowns."
Genesis snorted.
"Language."
"They don't get systems,"
I continued.
"No pop-ups. No RPG bullshit. They get stronger the old-fashioned way, training, fighting monsters in cracks, exposure to dimensional radiation. Ugly. Painful. Organic."
I turned my head slightly, eyes unfocused as I thought.
"So what gives?"
Silence. Not empty this time. Dense. Genesis paused long enough that I felt it, like pressure building behind my temples. Then she spoke.
"…Regarding that,"
She said as If shes trying to avoid telling the truth.
"I might have been granted administrator privileges by the system."
The words hit like a dropped plate. I went still. Blink. Once. Twice. My grip on the sink tightened unconsciously.
"…I beg your pardon?"
Genesis didn't rush her answer.
"Think about it,"
She said.
"You died while linked to me. A fully integrated, self-aware, military-grade AI with adaptive growth and legacy command architecture."
I swallowed.
"You crossed space and time,"
She continued.